Principal's Message

Bowen State School Newsletter 29 Kennedy Street, Bowen QLD 4805

Phone: 07 4786 9555

Facsimile: 07 4786 9500

Email: admin@bowenss.eq.edu.au

www.bowenss.eq.edu.au

9 T H F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 8 V O L U M E 2 , I S S U E 1

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land – the Juru people.

Principal's

Week Dear Parents/Carers,

I trust that everyone had a relaxing break and are ready for a very exciting 2018 school year. I would like to thank all our families for ensuring our students had a great start to the school and ready for learning. Great job!

During their holidays, teachers worked hard to prepare stimulating lessons for their classes and students have made an enthusiastic start to the year. I would like to welcome all new students and their families to Bowen State School. It has been such a wonderful experience seeing our school community welcome our new families over the past “first weeks of the school year.”

I would also like to extend a warm welcome to our new staff members, Mrs Elizabeth Mayo (Deputy Principal), Ms Kelly (Year 5 Learning Engagement Teacher) and Miss Reahna Robinson (Year 3 Teacher).

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce you to our 2018 School Leadership Team. Miss Jemille Malouf – Principal, Mrs Elizabeth Mayo - Deputy Principal Mrs Maxine Hillery – Head of Curriculum, Ms Lisa Burow – Head of Inclusion Mrs Danielle Upkett – Guidance Officer, Mrs Therese Smalley – Master Teacher Mrs Kimberley Gregory – Business Manager

During the Pupil Free Days, the staff were engaged in a number of professional development activities, which was our first opportunity to work together to share how we are going to achieve our vision this year. Alongside this learning, as a school team we discussed the key areas that link to our Explicit Improvement Agenda for 2018. Our key actions for 2018 are to:

Have at least 85% of our students achieve an A – C in English and Maths Enhance student and community engagement Implement the Digital Technologies curriculum

This year, we will continue to embed our four values; being safe, responsible, respectful and learners. Our students have shown over the past two weeks how well they understand and know the values of our school, and our staff have been so proud of the start that all students have had. Over the past two weeks, our school has handed out over 3000 GOTCHA’s to our students for showing our values. Brilliant work!

Over the holidays we have had some facilities upgraded. Our library carpet has been refurbished and we can’t wait to launch the opening of our library this week. We have had a new bell system installed in the school, which the P & C funded through a grant application they were successful in. We appreciated all the hard work our P & C do for our school. We are currently in the final stages of our Wifi upgrade across the school. This is going to be instrumental in enhancing our use of technology to support the implementation of the Digital Technologies Curriculum.

Kind Regards Jemille Malouf Principal

Date Claimers

Deputy Principal’s Message

Term 1 Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

Week 4 12 February

P & C Meeting

13 February

School Swimming Starts

14 February School Banking

Planet Rhythm

15 February

16 February

Parade 8:50am

Week 7 5 March

Book Fair

6 March

Book Fair

7 March

School Banking

Book Fair

8 March

Book Fair

9 March

Parade 8:50am

Book Fair

Week 5 19 February 20 February 21 February

School Banking

22 February 23 February

Parade 8:50am

Week 6 26 February 27 February 28 February

School Banking

1 March 2 March

Parade 8:50am

| VISION | At Bowen State School we aim to empower all students to learn, to achieve their full potent ial.

| WE BELIEVE | Every student should be supported to become creative, collaborative, independent learne rs, who have a strong

sense of community and strive for excellence. |

Dear Parents and Carers,

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the staff, students and the Bowen Community for your warm welcome during my transition to Bowen State School. It has been very exciting to move to such a beautiful part of Queensland and be welcomed into the School.

I am passionate about ensuring that every student succeeds irrespective of their geographical location, what school they attend or what their background is. I have had the privilege of working in a range of schools with students from ECDP to Year 12, predominantly within rural and remote schools. I have worked extensively in the areas of Learning Support, Behaviour Support and Special Education. It has already become evident in my time at Bowen State School that there is a strong sense of community and that both staff and students are continually striving for excellence.

Two of my focus areas at Bowen SS are Attendance and Behaviour Support. I am eager to work within the Bowen Community to increase our Whole School attendance throughout 2018 to further enhance the learning outcomes for all students. I look forward to working with you to ensure you have access to the appropriate support for your child to attend school every day. Watch this space to see the rewards that will be on offer in coming weeks to celebrate student attendance.

I have been excited to see about the brilliant work that the school has already engaged with to establish Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL). My aim is to build on the current strengths within our school and work with the school team to continue the PBL journey and further support student behaviour. I am very proud to have the opportunity to work at Bowen State School and look forward to meeting many more families and students in the coming weeks.

Please feel free to introduce yourself to me or make a time to meet with me if you would like to discuss your child and their educational needs.

Kindest Regards,

Mrs Elizabeth Mayo Acting Deputy Principal

| VISION | At Bowen State School we aim to empower all students to learn, to achieve their full potent ial.

| WE BELIEVE | Every student should be supported to become creative, collaborative, independent learne rs, who have a strong

2A - have kicked off their SSP (Speech Sound Pics) journey at full pace. Students have been practising the various activities they will be using to help improve their reading and spelling. Caleb and Tai did a fantastic job with their Speedy Paired Decoding.

Prep A - This term the Prep children are “Exploring our Living World” in Science. We have been learning that to be a good scientist and find out about the world around us we need to use our five senses – sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste. The children have become more aware of their senses by participating in various classroom sensory activities. Next we will be exploring the world around us to discover living things and what these living things need.

6A - In year 6A we have had a fantastic start to the new school year. Our English work has focused on writing an imaginative narrative to entertain through the use of humour. We have analysed stories from Morris Gleitzman, who has written a number of humorous short stories. The students have attempted to write their first short story, using his author style.

1A - On Monday, Year 1 students welcomed visitors from the Paluma Environmental Education Centre. Mr Murphy and Dan helped introduce the topic of healthy habitats which the Year 1 students will be learning about in science this term. Some children got to dress up as ‘real life’ scientists.

Tasting

Smelling

4A - the students are enjoying learning to recognise and use descriptive language features from the Roald Dahl novel “The Twits”. Dahl describes a sneaky, funny, horrible couple known as the Twits, who live together in a small brick house without windows and play dangerous pranks on each other out of hatred, using a variety of descriptive language features. Soon, the students will be writing their own new entertaining chapter of “The Twits” to engage their readers. In art, the students also completed portraits of the characters to show Mr Twit’s disgusting straggly beard or Mrs Twit’s ugly face caused by all the ugly thoughts she has had.

Our attendance target in 2017 is to reach 95%

Whole School Attendance Term 1: 92.08%

Week 1 Week 2

Prep A 90.00% 94.19%

Prep B 92.80% 93.33%

Prep / 1C 98.75% 99.00%

1A 95.00% 93.00%

1B 97.50% 90.48%

2A 96.15% 90.77%

2B 89.81% 95.56%

2/3C 96.88% 88.73%

3A 92.59% 89.63%

3B 91.07% 93.57%

4A 93.48% 88.45%

4B 92.00% 92.00%

4C 94.00% 92.00%

5A 83.04% 80.00%

5B 90.08% 96.43%

5/6C 95.37% 91.85%

6A 97.22% 89.63%

6B 86.61% 81.43%

Congratulations to Prep/1C & Prep/1C our Bowen State School Attendance winners!

Every minute of every hour of every session of every day of learning counts at

Bowen State School.

| VISION | At Bowen State School we aim to empower all students to learn, to achieve their full potent ial.

| WE BELIEVE | Every student should be supported to become creative, collaborative, independent learne rs, who have a strong

sense of community and strive for excellence. |

Student Absences

Parents and Carers are encouraged to call

the office to report their child/ren’s absences

on 07 4786 9560.

1 or 2 days a week doesn’t seem much but…

If your child misses… That equals… Which is … And over 13 years of schooling that’s …

1 day per fortnight 20 days per year 4 weeks per year Nearly 1.5 years

1 day per week 40 days per year 8 weeks per year Over 2.5 years

2 days per week 80 days per year 16 weeks per year Over 5 years

3 days per week 120 days per year 24 weeks per year Nearly 8 years

| VISION | At Bowen State School we aim to empower all students to learn, to achieve their full potent ial.

| WE BELIEVE | Every student should be supported to become creative, collaborative, independent learne rs, who have a strong

sense of community and strive for excellence. |

Curriculum News Learning at School Our core business is learning. We are proud of our classrooms and strong learning culture here at Bowen SS. We are all learners – students, teachers, staff and families. All classrooms are buzzing with hard-working students, teachers and teacher aides and it is very important to us that we keep you informed of what is happening in your child’s classroom. All students will be bringing home a curriculum map for their year level this week. This document gives an outline of the work covered in each curriculum area. Take the time to ask questions about what your child is learning.

Year 5 students learning and problem-solving throug h Robotics Home Tips for Learning Parents and carers who read to their children give them a better future! Do you believe this? Lately there has been a great deal of media coverage about the importance of reading and recent research has shown that prep students come to school less prepared for school than previously. Is it because we are busy these days or is it that our young children find playing on digital devices more interesting? Reading to our children is not only providing them with a life-long love of books and developing necessary skills to learn, it also provides that much needed time to nurture them. Make sure you find at least 10 minutes a day to read to or with your primary school children and to listen to them read.

Achievers

Awards

Riley Horstman Prep A

Will Gordon Prep / 1C

Noah Richards 1 A

Jiah Viti 1 B

Henry Woodhouse 2 A

Elliana Bath 2 B

Xavier Sinclair 2/3 C

John Amaro-Bishop 3 A

Lilly Roberts 3 B

Shay Jones 4 A

Kameron Stoneham 5 B

Brock Medhurst 6A

Week 2 Week 3

Lauren Brazil Prep/1 C

Locklan Bauer 1 A

Sofie Connolly 1 B

Mia Saxelby 2 A

Michael Dyer 2 B

Jayden O’Keefe 2/3 C

Tahnaya Togo 3 A

Tynan Andersen 3 B

Malachi Ashlin 4 B

Shanae Murdock 4 C

Tiansheng Ma 5 B

Ashlyn O’Keefe 5/6 C

Lindsay Smith 6 B

The sporting calendar has been set and is looking very promising this year. Notes have gone out to students this week to kick off various sports and training sessions.

In order to select representatives for Bowen State School teams, we will be hosting a few trials before school and during lunch times. Successful students will then head onto the Bowen Sub-District Trials. If your child is selected to attend trials more information will be provided in terms of dates and venues.

We will be hosting our Bowen State School Inter-house Cross Country Trials on Friday, March 16th 2018 (Week 8). Further information and times will be sent out closer to the date.

Bowen State School Trials / Training:

Netball - Tuesday 13th February and Thursday 15th February - 1st Lunch in the hall

Rugby League - Mondays & Fridays- 1st Lunch on Gregory Street Oval

Cross Country - Wednesdays & Fridays- 8:15am in front of school main entrance

Tennis - Please see Miss H

Upcoming Bowen Sub-District trials are as follows:

Netball - Monday February 26th 2018

Rugby League - Wednesday February 28th 2018

Tennis - Monday March 5th 2018

Cross Country - Friday April 20th 2018

If your child is interested in taking part any of these sporting events please have them visit Miss Horvath for training times and/or permission forms.

Thank you!

The P&C would like to warmly welcome all new and returning families to Bowen State School and hope all students are ready for a successful year.

It’s great to see so many kids all wearing the new sports shirts. Both the shirts and school hats will be on sale throughout the year from the tuckshop.

Term 1 is a busy one for the P&C getting ready for the years events and fundraisers as well as holding our AGM.

Our first meeting will be held at 6:00pm on Monday the 12th of February at the Library,

I encourage you to attend if you would like to be involved in helping to contribute to a happy and healthy school environment for our children.

Matthew Bath

P&C President.

On Wednesday 14th February, John Rattley will present Planet Rhythm to students at Bowen State School.

For the last 15 years John has travelled to every corner of Australia bringing his much loved and respected Planet Rhythm Drum & Percussion workshops to primary school children. John’s presentation brings the largest production of its kind to primary school children all around Australia. With more than 200 drums & percussion instruments from over 50 countries around the world, it's not to be missed!!

The aim of the Planet Rhythm workshops is to provide each student with the opportunity to take part in a unique & memorable hands-on experience, and to be a collective part of something big... the huge finale

The rhythm of the planet comes ALIVE when the kids become the 'stars of the show'!

It will be held in the school hall from 9:00am onwards.

All parents/ caregivers are welcome to attend.

Guitar Lessons

Guitar lessons have commenced for this term. During the first ses-sion the students learnt some finger exercises that will help them to learn to move their fingers around the fret board. One student was playing the classic riff from Deep Purple’s, “Smoke on the Water,” by the end of the lesson. Rock on!

Next lesson will be spent learning to strum some great rhythms.

Lessons are held on Tuesdays during the first break from 10:50am to 11:15am. All students are welcome.

Our new library is almost ready to use. We have brand new carpet in the main area and lots of new modern furniture. It will be a great addition to other learning areas in our school.

We have a few rules so the best use can be made of this valuable resource.

All students are expected to care for the Library books. If books are damaged or lost, parents are expected to pay for the replacement.

Years Prep to 3

• Each student requires a library bag for borrowing (preferably waterproof). Library books need to be in this bag when being taken home or returned to school. A plastic shopping bag is a very cheap option. Please name all bags.

• Students may borrow 1 book at a time. • Books need to be returned within 2 weeks. • Students usually borrow during their class time. A timetable will be published in

a future newsletter.

Years 4 – 6

• Students may borrow 2 books at a time. • Books need to be returned within 2 weeks. • Students can borrow during their class time or at lunch breaks. A timetable will

be published in a future newsletter.

| VISION | At Bowen State School we aim to empower all students to learn, to achieve their full potent ial.

| WE BELIEVE | Every student should be supported to become creative, collaborative, independent learne rs, who have a strong

sense of community and strive for excellence. |

Student Support Team (SST)

Principal - Jemille Malouf Deputy Principal (DP): Elizabeth Mayo Head of Inclusion (HOI): Lisa Burow Head of Curriculum (HOC): Maxine Hillery Lead Learning Engagement Teacher : Brooke Henry Guidance Officer (GO): Danielle Upkett Chaplain/Behaviour Support Teacher Aide: Adam Goode Community Education Counsellor (CEC): Rainer Power Our roles explained Chaplain: Provides social, emotional and spiritual support, enhancing our school’s overall wellbeing strategy and contributing to student educational goals.

Examples include: KidsMatter team member; PBL ambassador; Rock and Water instructor; Intervention

Programs: social skilling, self-reflection, goal setting, self-confidence building. Rewards programs: board games, cards, touch football, and futsal. Community Education Counsellor (CEC): Provides support both educational and wellbeing to Aboriginal and Torres Strait students. The ‘cultural liason’ connection between school and community. Supports students, parents, teachers and fosters relationships between all parties. Provides whole school awareness/understanding of Indigenous perspectives.

Examples include: Indigenous attendance, mentoring students and setting goals, family visits and communicating goals and school information, linking families in with support services eg. Girudala, working with community groups to run ‘fruit break’ Monday lunch times, reward programs, in class support. Guidance Officer (GO): Identify factors that can interfere or disrupt effective learning, wellbeing and development, and plan or assist in planning interventions or programs that can help students achieve positive outcomes. Work with students, support teams, specialists and external professionals to support social development, mental health, diverse learning styles and needs.

Examples include: Leading the SST, assessing students learning needs, short term counselling and support, linking families and students in with external support services, lead Rock and Water program, supporting students and teachers for the best outcomes of students learning both academically and social emotionally. Work with Girudala, Whitsunday Crisis and Counselling, Relationships Australia, local GP’s, Behavioural Optometrists, Speech Language Therapist and Occupational Therapists.

| VISION | At Bowen State School we aim to empower all students to learn, to achieve their full potent ial.

| WE BELIEVE | Every student should be supported to become creative, collaborative, independent learne rs, who have a strong

sense of community and strive for excellence. |

Student Support Team Calendar